Chariot Oil licence renewed

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has granted a one-year extension for the First Renewal Phase on Chariot Oil and Gas’ Central Area Blocks.The licence area covering Blocks 2312 A & B and Northern halves of 2412 A & B, offshore Namibia are operated by Chariot’s wholly-owned local subsidiary, Enigma Oil & Gas Exploration (Pty) Limited which holds 90% equity while partner AziNam Ltd holds the remaining 10% equity.The extension means that the current phase will now run to 31 August 2014.In a statement, Chariot CEO Larry Bottomley thanked the ministry for granting the company the licence extension. He said the extension will enable them to integrate their data with information resulting from third party drilling activities in the region as the company seeks to select the best prospects for drilling and subsequently a partner with the optimum information at hand.Chariot has been unlucky in their quest to find oil off the Namibian coast after two wells were confirmed dry last year. Despite the dry wells, the company said it has identified prospects within both the shallower and deeper petroleum systems and will be looking to open a data room on the Central Area during the third quarter of this year.“There will be a focus on the shallower petroleum system which contains attribute-supported prospects but recent third party results have de-risked the deeper petroleum system and the prospect portfolio identified there,” the company’s statement said.Chariot added that it was encouraged by the results from the recent drilling of the Wingat 1 well undertaken by HRT located about 70km from Chariot’s Blocks. Although HRT found no commercial oil in its first drilling in the Walvis Basin, the well reportedly encountered two oil generating source rock layers and some samples contained good quality, light oil.Chariot said it will look to secure a partner with the aim of drilling a well in 2014 on completion of the farm-out process.